7 posts from June 2012

June 22, 2012

Newsrooms are dramatic by their very nature. The stories, the rush to deadline and the personalities behind the bylines. Somedays it’s like real-life Shakespeare.

Earlier this week I had a post about an NYT story about newsrooms on the big screen - the broadsheet in Hollywood. Now HBO is about to release a 10-part series about life in the newsroom.

The Newsroom debuts in Canada Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO Canada. It’s about a fictional cable news anchor and his team. The series stars Jeff Daniels as the anchor and the executive producer behind the HBO series is Aaron Sorkin, the brains behind the hit show The West Wing.

You can view a trailer of the show here. So far the reviews I’ve read are tepid. But I’ll give it a shot, besides it’s summer – Mad Men is done, Hells on Wheels is no longer, I haven’t kept pace with Breaking Bad, and, it’s Sunday – the weekend paper is read and I’ll be waiting for Monday’s edition.

June 19, 2012

Nik Wallenda walks a 550-metre-long tightrope over the brink of the Niagara Falls on Friday, June 15, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

The paper chase is never easy, mostly fun and page plans always change. On Friday night as Nik Wallenda was making his historic tip-toe across the Falls, we were wondering if he was going to give us a new meaning for deadline.

Wallenda practically pranced across the Falls, through slippery mist and vertigo views. Well, he made it safe and sound and we put the paper to bed without having to remake A1 for potential carnage cliffhanger.

We carried a small story on A1 Saturday, below the fold, saying he crossed the border without incident.

Now a stream of calls and emails from readers who want to talk about Wallenda and our coverage of his highly-publicized aerial adventure. Generally the folks commenting fall into one of the following categories:

1) Our coverage was too subdued. This was the most exciting news to come this way in a long time. It was a spectacular spectacle of human achievement.

2) Our coverage was just right. The event was a yawner. Maybe if he traversed the high-wire on a unicycle, wearing a Speedo, sans harness, there might be some tension.

3) Our coverage was over the top. We gave too much play to a risk-taking publicity-seeking stuntman. This was nothing more than prime-time snake oil.

Margaret Johnston of Oakville called to say we got it wrong. “We need people like this who strive to do something positive,” she said. “He’s saying ‘Don’t give up. Follow your dreams.’ He’s a hero.”

Mrs. Johnston said she loves our paper, but is disappointed with our coverage. She said her grandson will give a Valedictorian speech soon and he’s looking for heroes to quote. She said Nik Wallenda might be a suitable choice. (I suggested Louis Riel.)

Other papers went large with Page 1 play on the Flying Wallenda. Some readers loved the photography, the unique views and the night setting.

We didn’t go with large Page 1 play in the paper and I’m comfortable with our coverage. Nik Wallenda is highly-skilled at what he does – this wasn’t a walk in the park. But, as one reader said, his 25-minute walk across the Falls took less time than crossing by car.

The story and a small slide show is active on our website. Click here for more.

June 18, 2012

"We run a car wreck photo every week, whether we have a car wreck or not. That's our golden rule." – The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

One of the many sweet spots in this business is the time just after presses start running and before the bar closes. Ink is still wet on the paper and whiskey is fresh from the bottle.

Usually it happens after elections – harried reporters, photographers and deskers chasing people, stories and results in the tiny chasm when the ballot boxes close and deadline runs out. When the results are in the TV and radio folks shut down. They are usually at the bar first. The wretches from The Spec come in later, usually just before midnight with a few first-run copies of the daily.

“Tomorrow’s news today,” someone from our shop will say, as they put the paper in front of our media compatriots.

It's a scene straight out of TV or the big screen. We carried a feature story in today’s Spec from the NYT where writer Dan Barry writes about Harry Hope and the great storytelling at his bar: “after the last deadline and before the last call.”

"The editorial page played streams of invective across the provincial political scene like a fire hose. Harangues, pitted with epithets. Gammy bird was a hard bite. Looked life right in its shifty, bloodshot eye. A tough little paper. Gave Quoyle an uneasy feeling, the feeling of standing on a playground watching others play games whose rules he didn't know.” - From Annie Proulx's The Shipping News

Barry's NYT feature is subtitled “Movies we like about newspapers” and rhymes off a few of the obvious highlights – The Paper with Michael Keaton, Absence of Malice with Sally Field, Citizen Kane with Orson Welles, It Happened One Night with Clark Gable, Five Star Final with Boris Karloff and off course, All the President’s Men with Dustin Hoffman and Bob Woodward.

There’s a rich field and much to debate about where to rank the movies.

Here’s a few newspaper flicks that cometo mind, but not listed in the above link:

June 12, 2012

You learn much about a community by reading the obits in the newspaper. They generally have the shortest writing and the best stories. These stories tell me about who lives, or lived, what they did and who they loved or left behind. You can tell a lot about a city or town by reading these passages: diversity, wealth, lifespan, hopes and dreams. They are little markers of a community’s makeup.

Good reporters turn to these pages right away for tips and leads. There’s gems buried in the white space between the black lines. I still remember Katie Bedford’s obit in the paper in 2001 when I was a young city editor. It was a standard obit written by a funeral director laying out the facts. Said she died suddenly, left behind a young baby, pre-deceased by her father. Clues and alarm bells everywhere.

Susan Clairmont snipped the obit and followed the story. Her lede was short, sharp and powerful:

"She was a mother. Daughter. Sister. Drop-out. Prostitute. Junkie. She was 15 years old. Katie was buried last week, just a few graves down from her father. Two years ago, he overdosed on tranquilizers and cocaine. He didn't make it to his 40th birthday."

Read the obits and you'll find stories of inspiration, lessons, despair and humour. These are the end notes of our lives.

Yesterday, the obit announcing Fredrick Ross Hummason's death caught my eye. He was 92, born May 14, 1920 and died June 6, 2012. Fred sounded likely a lively character. He was an engineer. Had a cottage on Lake Erie and hunt camp in Saskatchewan. He had a wife, Betty, four kids (one died before him), seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Fred loved dogs. They loved him back. One of them, Breeze, will forever rest with Fred and Betty.

Whoever wrote the obit had the confidence and courage to capture Fred’s spirit. The obit began with one of the best headlines in the paper: “Fred’s Dead and Dogs Liked Him.”

Catchy opener. And then the closer: "There is to be no service - (don't spend the money). Fred's and Betty's ashes, along with best friend Breeze, will be laid to rest in Fred's home town of Lockwood, Saskatchewan. To honour Fred's memory, embrace your family."

June 11, 2012

CBS anchor Dan Rather is making the rounds these days providing insight, foresight and confession.

His new book, Rather Outspoken, My Life in the News, chronicles his years at CBS and looks at the news world, from the emergence of the tv news age into the internet age.

He's covered and been on the scene of some of the largest stories of our time. He's tough, insightful and made mistakes. In his book and in interviews he's doing, he talks a lot about the corporatization of news and the costs of chasing the news.

This morning on CBC radio he spoke with Anna Marie Tremonti. You can link to her interview here.

Last week he was in Toronto. Check out what he had to say in this post by Andrew Moran from examiner.com

June 07, 2012

Long before the sun is up and the morning birds are chirping, John Burman is in the newsroom pounding on his keyboard the keys rhythmically streaming facts and stories and bringing life to the world around us. He makes several calls, sometimes dozens, to police, fire, neighbors, victims and witnesses. He's quiet or sometimes quietly shouts orders to chase this angle or that and will at times grab the keys to his car to get out on a scene for more details.

In between, it's not unusual for John Burman to grab a coffee and pull a young reporter aside, give them a nudge, a byline and a new perspective. Working with John is the busman's holiday of papermaking and over the years he's mentored dozens of reporters who've gone on to tell some incredible stories through first-class reporting.

John Burman is a reporter's reporter. Tomorrow morning, after the calls, orders and a flurry of typing for the never-ending web deadlines and later for the inky presses, John takes a bow.

Three other newsroom staffers are retiring as well. Later today the newsroom will gather, share stories, have some cake and wish them well. I'm singling John out here, because he's special to me. I came to the newsroom 26 years ago and John was the guy who showed me the ropes. On my first day he brought me to a deli on Hunter Street. It used to be tucked into the TH&B station, now the GO station. We talked reporting and newspapers. When the day was over we'd have a beer on the front steps of John's house. We'd talk reporting and newspapers. In the newsroom, he'd read my story and tell me a vignette about a news story he wrote and how he did it. He wouldn't criticize my story, but I knew by how he'd done his job, I could do more. And I would. In those days we had five newspaper editions and we'd chase and update all day long. Just like now with the internet.

John, started with The Spec 38 years ago, on Jan 9, 1974. He bleeds Spec country having worked in news bureaus long-ago closed. Milton, Oakville, Stoney Creek. He especially liked the Cayuga bureau:

"It was on Highway 3. One room. No washroom. The Cayuga Hotel was across the street."

He recalls the night when the owner of that tavern won $100,000 in a Wintario draw. He talks about a reporter (not himself, but let's say John was privy to events) who went to cover that news story and when he did found that the celebrating owner opened the draft taps to all. In the morning, the reporter's editor called demanding to know what was going on. The groggy reporter's reply: "What, you wanted a story, too?"

The timing of age and finances line up and it's time for John to go. He doesn't have regrets.

His best story; "The one I'm working on."

His best advice to reporters: "Get the name of the dog. This job is all about detail. If you have the name of the dog, an editor can be reasonably assured you've asked everything else."

In 2000 two Grade 9 students in Welland were killed in an industrial accident during A Take Our Kids to work event. They were driving a utility vehicle and smashed into a parked tractor trailer. John covered the story by going to the high school attended by one of the dead teens.

John's lede, an example of John's detailed reporting: "Third seat from the front, second row from the windows. A simple bouquet of flowers occupied the empty desk in Robbie Fulbrook's English class yesterday."

John's retiring from the newsroom, but not sharing, mentoring or finding new stories to tell. A good reporter never stops reporting.

June 05, 2012

Just reading the news - Kadir Anlayisli stands next to the internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012. Anlayisli works in the after hours liqueur and tobacco shop with internet cafe and called a police man from outside saying he recognized suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta.

The massive manhunt for the alleged Canadian Cannibal is over.

City police, provincial police, federal investigators, Interpol, and throngs of other investigators from two continents were in on the hunt. Suspect Luka Magnotta bragged about being a master of disguises, a regular Ralph Ellison kind of Invisible Man. He hopscotched countries in a bid to disappear.

And where did they find this peverted porn star accused of murdering and dismembering a young man in Montreal? Holed up in a German internet café reading the news about himself.